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Infographic: Will Japan Face the Next Debt Crisis?

All eyes are on the European financial crisis, but Japan's worrying debt load could put it in the on-deck circle for debt troubles.

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When it comes to our increasingly creaky global financial system, all eyes are on Europe, but this data visualization shows that maybe we should be paying more attention to Japan, where economic indicators are raising red flags.

In Europe, the continent's shared currency is under strain thanks to fears that countries like Greece, Italy, Spain and Ireland will be unable to repay their increasingly expensive public borrowing. That, in turn, puts pressure on governments to cut public spending and leading to fears of bank failures and tightening credit conditions. European leaders are being forced to adopt reforms and gather enough money to backstop stretched public treasuries as the rest of the world worries about what will happen to their workers and businesses if the whole thing goes south.

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Is This the End of the European Union?

Europe's financial crisis is undermining one of the great global experiments in democracy and economics.


When Jean Monnet was 26, an assassination in the Balkans sparked World War I. When he was 51, Hitler’s Germany launched World War II, engulfing Europe in chaos again. The French economist concluded that only economic integration could keep the continent from war, and spent the rest of his life laying the groundwork for what would become the European Union.

Now, with the continent engulfed in financial crisis that began in the Balkans, it’s disturbingly possible that Monnet’s dream could go down the tubes, as France and Germany contemplate creating a “core” of economically-integrated countries and leaving insolvent members behind.

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